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Common Council votes for Sydney Hih demolition

The Milwaukee Common Council voted 13-2 Tuesday not to reconsider historic designation for the Sydney Hih, a complex of 19th century buildings in the Park East area. The decision allowed an appeal of the designation by the city, which controls the buildings, to stand.

That makes demolition the next step.

The council revisited the issue after Ald. Robert Bauman used a parliamentary maneuver at the last council meeting that forced a delay and a second vote on the matter.

An informal proposal for a development of the buildings had been floated by local developer John Raettig in the days before the last council meeting, and Bauman hoped to buy a little time to see if that plan would pan out, he said.

It didn’t. In recent days Raettig has circulated a letter around City Hall claiming that Rocky Marcoux, the Department of City Development commissioner, had threatened to damage his reputation if he pressed the case.

There was far less debate about the former conclave of counterculture this time around, though the voice of Milwaukee’s former Mayor John O. Norquist surfaced like a voice from the past.

Bauman handed out copies of an essay by Norquist published late Monday afternoon at UrbanMilwaukee.com, and asked his fellow alderman to read and re-read it. In reiterating their position that the Sydney Hih should be left intact, Bauman and Ald. Nik Kovac referenced Norquist’s piece liberally.

In the article, Norquist, now the president of the Chicago-based Congress of New Urbanism, calls for sparing the Sydney Hih and criticizes the city’s strategy of clearing and consolidating lots for possible developments more generally.

“I do think that it is important to always live in the realm of realistic possibilities,” Kovac said. “And the current two realistic possibilities for this site are the buildings stay up with an uncertain future or the buildings come down and we have a gravel lot for the indefinite future. A gravel lot is not my preference.”

Ald. Milele A. Coggs also reiterated her position that the Sydney Hih, a place she herself frequented years ago, was too deteriorated to preserve. She also said that no concrete plans were brought to her attention by Raettig or anyone else in the intervening weeks since the last meeting. The buildings are in her district.

Sydney Hih has “value and history and sentiment” not only to those who fought to preserve it but to her and other members of the council who support its demolition. But, she said, “we have to deal with the reality of its present condition.”

The Sydney Hih has been saved from the wrecking ball many times in its history, after a fire in the 1970s and again when the Park East freeway was knocked down in 2003.

What seemed like a solution was found in 2008 with a plan to integrate part of the Sydney Hih into a $160 million hotel and condominium project. For financial reasons, that project never went forward.

In November, the buildings were purchased by a nonprofit lending agency affiliated with the city, which was quietly working on a deal to entice Kohl’s Corp. to move its headquarters downtown. That deal fell through in February.

When the DCD was preparing to demolish the structures, indicating they were an impediment to attracting development, a group of activists filed a last-minute petition for interim historic designation. That petition was approved unanimously by the Historic Preservation Commission in June.

Normally, that would have put demolition plans on hold. However, the city attorney issued an opinion last month, referencing reports from the Department of Neighborhood Services, indicating that Sydney Hih could be demolished at any time because the conditions for an emergency raze order existed.

Officials at the DCD, however, decided to allow the political process to play out and will now set things in motion for demolition, said Jeff Fleming, DCD spokesman.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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